1. Field
The disclosed embodiments relate to printers for computer systems. More specifically, the disclosed embodiments relate to a computer-based printing system that operates without having to generate and maintain printer-specific driver software.
2. Related Art
Printers are often a problem for computer users. When a computer user initially installs a printer, the cabling and power cords are typically not a problem to hook up. However, the user typically has to install a printer-specific driver, which involves loading the driver from a disk or navigating to a website and downloading the driver. Even if the printer driver is already loaded into the computer system, the user typically has to load and install an update for the driver from the printer manufacturer's website. These installation operations are time-consuming and commonly require the user to find and enter a long software-license key.
Printers pose an even bigger problem for users of mobile computing devices, such as laptops or smart phones. In practice, the wireless computing device may not be configured with the requisite driver software. In this case, installing the appropriate printer driver can be bothersome, especially if the user of the mobile computing device only intends to use the nearby printer once or twice. Also, mobile computing devices have limited storage space, which makes it impractical for them to store a large number of printer drivers.
Hence, what is needed is a system that facilitates printing from a computing device to a nearby printer without the above-described problems.